Chapter 219: The God's Head |
Horses and deer carried the food and water. Since Bai Mu had taken in some refugees, there weren't enough mounts for everyone. Furthermore, the beasts of burden now carried extra weight, making it impossible to travel as lightly and swiftly as they had when crossing the mountains.
For the Script's Main Quest, the refugees and captives were undoubtedly burdens. They provided no help to Bai Mu; instead, they drained his resources and dragged down their efficiency.
The captives' deaths wouldn't be a pity, but abandoning the refugees here would undoubtedly be a death sentence for them. Bai Mu had no obligation to save anyone, yet he understood the value of life and just how difficult it was to survive. These refugees did not want to die, so he brought them along anyway. The group advanced at a rather slow pace. During this time, Bai Mu never stopped interrogating the captives. He desperately needed to figure out exactly what the "monsters" in the east and this so-called "divine punishment" truly were.
He tied the musketeer to Tuya's back, using gestures and speaking to him as they walked.
For the past few days, he had been trying hard to memorize their writing and language, even asking the refugees to teach him. Suddenly, in a flash of clarity, he realized he could understand the musketeer's words.
It felt like taking off a pair of heavy earmuffs; suddenly, he could hear and comprehend exactly what the people around him were saying.
At the same time, he heard the notification chime from Paradise: [You have acquired the skill, Ancient Language Mastery Lv.1.]
After several days of strenuous studying and memorizing, he had comprehended another new passive skill.
Learning this skill was far more troublesome than acquiring his riding technique. However, grasping it gave him the same sensation as before—he instantly crossed the threshold from a complete layman to a beginner, as if he had been studying the language for months.
The musketeer was currently answering his previous question. Bai Mu wanted to know what exactly these people had gone into that forest to hunt. The man gestured with his hands, outlining a large, round object.
"A head," he said. "We went there to bring a head to the Emperor."
"The head of what?" Bai Mu asked.
The musketeer froze at the sound of his voice. Bai Mu had never spoken to him before, so he had assumed this captor didn't understand his language. This sudden question shattered his train of thought, causing him to pause.
"Keep talking. What exactly were you bringing the head of to the Emperor?" Bai Mu pressed down on the man's shoulder.
The musketeer licked his cracked lips and glanced at the waterskin hanging at Bai Mu's waist.
"I want water," he croaked.
Bai Mu hadn't given the captives a single drop of water or a bite of food all night. He gave the man a flat look, unhooked the waterskin, and ordered, "Open your mouth."
The musketeer obediently opened his mouth. Bai Mu poured a little water in, which the man drank greedily. However, Bai Mu stopped after giving him just enough to moisten his throat.
"If you want food and water, answer my questions."
The musketeer's eyes darted around, seemingly calculating how to leverage his information for more benefits. Bai Mu smoothly drew his revolver and pressed the cold barrel directly against the man's temple.
"Since you know how to use a musket, you should be able to see that the thing in my hand shares some similarities with your weapons. Care to guess what will happen if I pull this trigger? Or have you already forgotten the people who died right in front of you yesterday?"
It was a naked threat. The musketeer clearly understood that Bai Mu had used this very weapon to slaughter his comrades. He immediately began to tremble as if plunged into an ice pit. Stripped of any ulterior motives, he honestly answered Bai Mu's questions.
"It was the head of a god," the musketeer confessed. "By obtaining the head of a god, the Emperor could achieve immortality."
"A god?"
"The head of the Mountain Beast God," the musketeer elaborated. "In that forest, there was a deity who governed life and death. We shot off its head with our muskets and brought it to the Emperor."
"Can a god really be killed with mere muskets?" Bai Mu asked, genuinely doubtful.
"Gods have weaknesses too," the musketeer replied. "As long as you are at the right place at the right time and create the right conditions, it can be done." "Sounds like you know a lot about gods," Bai Mu noted.
"I'm just a hired gun. I simply follow orders from the higher-ups."
"So, were you successful in the end?"
"I don't know," the musketeer sighed. "But I think we failed. The Emperor didn't gain immortality; instead, he turned into a monster. It was always wishful thinking for a mortal to try and harness the power of a god."
"Even though everyone claims the Emperor's power is bestowed by heaven, the truth is that he's just a mortal who gets sick and grows old, exactly like the rest of us."
"In the past, speaking ill of the Emperor would get your head chopped off, but now I can speak my mind. If he really was the so-called Son of Heaven, why would he seek a way to kill a god just because he was getting old?"
"To put it bluntly, he just happened to be reincarnated into a better womb than I was."
The musketeer's words carried a rebellious undertone—a sentiment that kings and nobles weren't born inherently superior. He clearly harbored deep resentment toward the Emperor. After all, everything began with that man's orders, and the musketeer blamed his current miserable fate entirely on the throne.
After exchanging words with the musketeer, Bai Mu finally pieced together the background story of this Script.
An old man, desperate to extend his lifespan, had dispatched his subordinates to a distant forest to hunt down the head of the Mountain Beast God, vainly attempting to ascend as an immortal deity himself. The result was that the headless Mountain Beast God spawned a horde of Mountain Evil Gods. Death spread from that forest into the outside world, and the old man who received the head never saw his wish fulfilled.
According to the musketeer, on the second day after receiving the head, the Emperor transformed into a terrifying monster. Anyone who got near him met a swift and gruesome death.
The musketeer believed the god was furious and intended to slaughter everyone. It released a curse upon the outside world, causing the earth to wither and wildlife to drop dead. The curse spread steadily from the east, impossible to evade, which was why so many people were fleeing toward this narrow haven.
With nowhere else to hide, they had come here. The musketeer knew that a similar curse had appeared on the other side of the mountains as well—this was the price for disturbing a god. After getting a clear picture of the situation, Bai Mu shoved the waterskin and a piece of flatbread into the musketeer's hands.
"I advise you not to go any further," the musketeer suddenly warned, seemingly struck by a bout of conscience after receiving food and water. "The monster the Emperor turned into is far more terrifying than those wild boars. Just getting close to it will curse you."
"Wherever it walks, it brings death. Muskets and explosives are completely useless against it. The original musketeer squad was wiped out. They used enough gunpowder to collapse an entire mountain, and still couldn't kill that monster."
"If you want to live, you'd better hide. Surviving even one more day is a victory. Maybe if you hide in some remote corner of the deep mountains, you just might survive."
Bai Mu sensed the unmistakable aura of a final boss. Logically deducing the facts, those "Resentful Pigs" and "Resentful Wolves" were likely just monsters catalyzed by the scattered residual power from the god's corpse.
The Emperor, having claimed the head, undoubtedly possessed far more power than any so-called "Resentful Pig". He was highly likely to be the true Mountain Evil God of this Script.